Homeless Facility To Open In Greenwich Village

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — A new housing center for homeless New Yorkers is set to open in Greenwich Village next year. It comes as the city revealed the number of people living on city streets has risen nearly 40% from 2016.

The new facility at 114 West 14th St. is scheduled to open in February 2018 and serve "street homeless" New Yorkers, the population that is considered most at-risk. The space will be run by the Center for Urban Community Services, a nonprofit that focuses on providing and advocating for affordable housing.

The space won't be operated like a traditional, long-term homeless shelter but rather a "safe haven" facility, meaning it will help gradually transition New Yorkers living on the streets to into a shelter.

It will also have a 24-hour drop-in center, said Mary Taylor, a spokeswoman for CUCS. (Want more local news? Sign up here for free news alerts and neighborhood updates from Patch.)

Experts say that people living on the street — those who spend most nights outside sleeping on park benches, in the subways, or elsewhere — are often the group least receptive to supportive services. The thousands of New Yorkers who sleep without shelter each night often have experienced trauma or suffer from mental illness or substance abuse issues, which can make them unwilling to seek help or support at a traditional city homeless shelter. Safe havens are meant to provide an alternative to larger, more complex shelters.

The drop-in center will provide services including food, shower facilities, psychiatric services and primary medical care, Taylor said. It can support about 75 people at a time and will connect people with case workers. In addition, the safe haven section of the facility will have overnight beds for 24 people.

"Safe haven" shelters are separate from Mayor Bill de Blasio's ambitious goal to add 90 new homeless shelters over the next five years to address the city's housing crisis. A recent survey found that New York City's street homeless population has risen by 40 percent in the last year. In February 2016, an estimated 2,794 people were sleeping rough compared to 3,892 a year later.

Arianna Fishman, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Homeless Services, said the city has added about 350 beds for street homeless New Yorkers since 2015, and is planning to add another 360 by the end of the year.

"We need every community to come together to address the citywide challenge of homelessness, which requires a mix of different types of facilities across the five boroughs meant to serve homeless New Yorkers facing different challenges," she said.

"Helping street homeless New Yorkers transition indoors requires persistent and compassionate outreach coupled with facilities geared towards clients who are often resistant to accepting services — low-barrier programs with robust on-site services are often the first step towards bringing these individuals indoors more permanently."

Read related stories from Patch:

• Number Of Homeless New Yorkers Surges 40% In Past Year, City Count Shows
• Safe Haven Facility To Open In Gramercy

Image credit: Spencer Platt / Staff / Getty Images News.